The striking Mo Ventus concept house features retractable walls covering a cantilevered office

Over the years, we have come across quite a few daring architectural concepts, unique for their unorthodox yet incredibly innovative quality, which sadly have never seen the light of day. The latest proposal, by US-based design and architecture firm FIXd, seems to fall into this category. Too ambitious to be actually practical, the new Mo Ventus concept house features a cantilevered glass office that can be revealed or hidden by means of a sliding screen. As the developers point out, the building’s unusual name refers to winds (‘Mo’ meaning movement, and ‘Ventus’ standing for ‘wind’).

Envisioned as the house of the future, this stunning two-story dwelling is powered sustainably by renewable energy, allowing its residents a chance to embrace an environmentally-conscious, off-the-grid lifestyle. According to the architects, the structure’s unique concave design ensures easy installation of solar panels, while also increasing the amount of energy harvested from winds by causing them to accelerate. Speaking about the design, Todd Fix, the founder of FIXd Architecture/Design, said:

This house attempts to find a new balance of spatial quality, embracing nature and using mechanical means to alter exposure and heat gain when needed with retractable screen and shell… The house is designed to be holistically balanced and technologically driven while being seductively designed, sited, and detailed.

Extending outward from the curved facade, the cubed cantilevered office is reminiscent of the glazed box, created by Frank Gehry, as part of director Bill Norton’s 1984 Venice Beach residence. The most striking feature of the Mo Ventus house are the retractable walls that can be made to cover or reveal the office space, depending on the occupant’s preference or changing weather conditions. Likened to the common practice of removing layers of clothing on a hot summer day, the system serves as a moving sunscreen that can be controlled mechanically. Fix added:

Mõ Ventus’s office is an unusual workspace, allowing one to be literally and fully in the world while simultaneously, via cantilever, isolated from its distractions, creating an inspirational yet highly productive working environment.

Apart from its somewhat flamboyant exterior, the house has room for a spectacular rooftop pool and garden, a solar panel-fitted pergola for additional clean energy, a garage that can accommodate up to 10 cars, a dog run, a basketball court and so on. What is more, the interior features a Carsten Höller-designed tube slide that can carry occupants from the bedroom all the way to the beach.

Other luxuries include an outdoor gallery with heated seating for film screenings, a deck equipped with cooking pits and stunningly modernist dining furniture, indoor climbing wall and even an au-pair suite. According to the architects, the Mo Ventus house can be built anywhere with available floor area ranging from 9,000 to around 2,500 square meters. Construction costs would likely amount to somewhere between $2,5 and $5 million (approximately £1.7 and £3.5 million).

To know more about FIXd and its various projects, visit the studio’s official website.